The Real Deal New York

Icon’s $525K UWS tenant buyout goes sour

Icon Realty Management refuses to make a final payment to a now deceased tenant

April 12, 2015 10:15AM

Upper West Side landlord Icon Realty Management has landed in court over a deal it made with a now deceased tenant in a condo conversion.

Icon plans to convert a rental building at 350 West 71st Street to condos, and it offered long-time resident Walter Blomeyer $525,000 to leave his studio. Blomeyer, a black-car driver, accepted the deal, but died sometime after. Now, the landlord is refusing to pay up, according to the New York Post.

Icon modified the deal sometime before Blomeyer’s death, paying Blomeyer $300,000 and allowing him to live in an adjacent SRO building rent-free for a year before giving the final $225,000. Now, the landlord is refusing to make the final payment.

“This is bullying,” lawyer Ted Poretz told the Post. “There’s nothing at all in this agreement that says, ‘We don’t have to pay him when he dies.’”

However, Icon’s lawyer claims that they never agreed to pay the man’s estate.